Bill Clinton Bristles Anew Over Questions About ‘Race Card’
Former President Bill Clinton had a testy encounter Tuesday with reporters who questioned his remarks in a radio interview in which he accused Barack Obama’s campaign of unfairly playing the race card on him.
“You always follow me around and play these little games,” Clinton shot back at an ABC News reporter who questioned him about a phone interview with Philadelphia public radio station WHYY.
On Monday, an audibly irritated Clinton railed against the Obama campaign for what he described as an effort to twist comments made in South Carolina on Jan. 26, the Palmetto State’s presidential primary election day.
In the remarks that sparked the furor, Clinton compared Obama’s campaign to that of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
“Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina twice in ‘84 and’88, and he ran a good campaign, and Senator Obama has run a good campaign. He has run a good campaign everywhere. He’s got a good — He is a good candidate with a good organization,” Clinton said.
Obama supporters said the remarks were meant to belittle Obama by comparing him with a black candidate whose appeal was more narrow. Obama called the remarks hallmarks of the politics of racism.
Asked Monday if he regretted the comment, Clinton responded: “No, I think that they played the race card on me, and we now know from memos in the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.
“Do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you’ve really got to go some (distance) to portray me as a racist,” Clinton said, adding that he has an office in Harlem, and Jackson told him personally he was not offended.
“I called him and asked him if he found anything offensive. And he just laughed and he said, ‘Of course I don’t. We all know what’s going on,’ ” Clinton said.
Clinton told WHYY that he has “conceded that this was used against me, but this was a conversation that occurred early in the morning. We didn’t even know what the vote was going to be at the time. We were all sitting around, drinking coffee — we just finished breakfast — and we were starting, we were talking about South Carolina political history.
“And this was used out of context, and this was twisted for political purposes by the Obama campaign to try to breed resentment elsewhere.”
The former president added a more colorful remark at the end of an interview when he appeared to think he was off-mic.
“I don’t think I should take any sh** from anybody on that, do you?” he apparently asked someone in the room.
A reporter on Tuesday asked Clinton what he meant when he said the Obama campaign was playing the race card on him.
Clinton responded: “No, no, no, that’s not what I said. … You always follow me around and play these little games. And I am not going to play your games today. This is a day about Election Day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it just to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today.”
Faced with questions about the former president’s remarks, Obama said he simply didn’t understand Clinton’s point.
“So hold on a second,” Obama told reporters with a chuckle. “So former President Clinton dismissed my victory in South Carolina as being similar to Jesse Jackson and he is suggesting that somehow I had something to do with it? OK, well, you better ask him what he meant by that.”
His campaign spokesman dismissed it with more glee.
“The secret memo? Where we put the idea in his head to say what he said so he can blame us for having said it?” spokesman Robert Gibbs said with a wink. “That would be pretty good if we could do that.”
Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania about her husband’s remarks.
“I think we’re going to stay focused on what voters are focused on,” she said.
Clinton’s recollection of the Jan. 26 comment is a problem his wife has had to deal with throughout her campaign. While Clinton recalls the comments coming over coffee, the specific remark most people refer to came during an impromptu television interview with an ABC reporter. No breakfast or coffee was immediately visible in video of the interview that was given outdoors.
Click here to hear Bill Clinton’s WHYY interview on YouTube.
Click here to see an ABC video clip of Obama responding to the remarks and Clinton’s comments.
Seems for once slick is telling the truth.A black Democratic candidate will win SC. This is a news? Come on…
DEAR HOWARD: World War I Woody Wilson (D), World War II FDR (D), Korea Harry Truman (D), and Viet Nam JFK/LBJ (D)>>>>>>Quit drinking the KOOL AID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is for Howard. Check your facts on the beginnings of each war.
Korea Was Truman
Vietnam was Kennedy and then continued by Johnson.
Just like a democrat to speak before he gets the facts, er um were you under sniper fire???
You people (Howard) need to learn your history - Democrats have also been in office during times of war. It makes me ashamed to be an American when I see this level of ignorance. Some folks shouldn’t be allowed to vote, no matter how old they are (Howard).
Lets not forget the Bush lies.. Lie after lie. this administration is the most corrupt administration in the history of this country.. The Bush administration destroyed this country economy, at least when Bill Clinton was in office the economy was great no over inflated fuel cost actually when Bill Clinton left office crude oil was under $20 a barrel.. 7 1/2 years with Bush it climbed to $117 a barrel. Plus millions of jobs lost under this administration, lots of manufacturing left this country most to Mexico. The Bush administration dose not care about any of you, unless your super rich.. Oh by the way if you do love Bush then you will love his puppet John Mc Cain.
Please keep this in mind. After the dust settles with the selection of Obama or Clinton the real battle begins. And the real enemy is the Republican party, John McCain and their policies of give to the Rich/Investor class using your children’s future all the while threatening fear of constant war. It matters not which wins as long as they can beat McCain. Either one will need your help.
Signed…A Former Republican Voter.
Howard wrote -
“Set the record straight-almost every war we have been involved in was started by, or, we entered it while a republican was in office-republicans are well known for getting into wars-if there had been a democrat in office at the time we probably wouldnt be over in iraq right now-”
I’m not sure where you learned history, but you’d better go ask for a refund. Ever hear of WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam? All started and escalated by democratic presidents.
Again I ask, what experience does she bring to the question of leadership? What has she ever done for Americans and America. She has been on the public dole all of her adult life. She never had to make a mortage, never ran a business, hell, I’m not even sure she raised her daughter without significant help. Her vision is not even her own.
Come on Pennsy, wake up. She and her husband cost you hundreds of thousands of jobs through NAFTA. Don’t believe she suddenly woke up with religion. The only religion those two know is self worship. Tell them NO MORE. Just say no to Hilliary
To compare this to racism is to demean racism
First, I am not for either Clinton or Obama, but the more I read and Hear on TV most of the news media seems to be backing Obama. Every one excuses anything that is said about Obama like he can do no wrong. I don’t see the news media twisting words to trap Obama. Just like we all know he was in church at times when his pastor(which was his mentor) said some of the awful things, all the people in the background of the video was jumping around and rah rahing him on. Obama said he didn’t know and that was the end of it. When you have Opra and the news media on your side you can do anything and get away with it. Fox is the only news media I watch any more.